The UK’s biggest non-partisan politics festival has revealed its most exciting programme yet for its eighth year in Sheffield.
This year’s Festival of Debate will include 60 events from 19 April to 31 May.
For the first time the festival programme,with some events hosted in person and others hosted online, will be ‘blended’.
Wherever possible these events have been made free to attend as the festival team have made sure ticketed events are as cheap as possible. The event is designed specifically so that as many people as possible can get involved.
Hosted by local social enterprise Opus Independents, in collaboration with dozens of regional partners, Festival of Debate provides a vital platform for discussing and exploring the most important political, social and economic issues of our time. At a point when trust in government, business, NGOs and the media is at an all-time low.
Opus is a not-for-profit social enterprise working in culture, politics and the arts. It aims to support ‘upstream’ solutions to social, political, economic and environmental problems.
“We create platforms for independent information and communication which amplify voices within the local economy, voluntary, community and campaign sectors. We support active citizenship and community participation. Our core projects are Now Then Magazine, Festival of Debate, Wordlife, Opus Distribution and UBI Lab Network.”
Festival of Debate 2022 will feature several guest speakers including:
satirist Armando Iannucci, writer and trans rights campaigner Shon Faye, feminist journalist Gloria Steinem, local government expert and online sensation Jackie Weaver, human rights activist Baroness Shami Chakrabarti and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
With an additional keynote talk from George Monbiot, an environmental activist and writer at Sheffield’s Octagon Centre on 23 June. Alongside a wide-ranging schedule of community events led by grassroots groups and individual citizens.
Festival of Debate programmer Joe Kriss said:
“The Festival of Debate is a reflection of the most pressing movements for change. At a time when things look so polarised and trust in institutions of all kinds has reached rock bottom, it’s important that we make space for improving our collective understanding of the problems we face as a society—and what solutions could look like.
We work with a cross section of community activists, publishers and the voluntary and community sector to create a platform that seeks to connect people to new ideas and campaigns.”
Grassroots events include: an Environmental Hub Day, which will bring together activists and campaign groups in Sheffield for the city’s biggest-ever event on the future of our planet. And talks highlighting the criminalisation of the UK’s Gypsy and Traveller communities. As well as highlighting the presence of Covid misinformation.
Other headline events include: the creative campaign group Led By Donkeys, Turkish journalist Ece Temelkuran, and David Wengrow, co-author of ‘The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity’ with the late David Graeber.
Other events explore how to create a more neuro-divergent city. Along with an analysis of the recommendations from Sheffield’s Race Equality Commission, a look at the future of local media, and talks on air pollution and re-wilding in the city.
The full programme is now available at festivalofdebate.com
